Braintree woman leads effort to honor Rosa Parks

Thursday

MBTA buses will honor the civil rights pioneers under a new state law that was the idea of a Braintree woman.

BRAINTREE − All MBTA buses will soon display a tribute to civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks, thanks to a new state law that was the idea of a Braintree woman.

The law, which was signed by Gov. Charlie Baker on Wednesday, requires the MBTA to recognize Parks with a decal or other device on the front left window of their buses.

On Dec. 1, 1955, Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus to a white man, and was arrested for violating the city's segregation laws. Four days later, the Montgomery Bus Boycott began, a key early event in the civil rights movement, which the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King helped lead. The boycott ended the following year when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the law as unconstitutional. Parks continued to be active in the civil rights movement until her death in 2005.

The bill was filed by state Sen. Walter Timilty, D-Milton, at the request of Natalie Ornell, 28, of Braintree. Ornell had seen a similar decal on a bus while in Miami and thought the same should be done here.

"Everything worked out great," Ornell said after the bill was signed. "I'm so thankful to everyone who supported the bill. It's been incredible teamwork. So many people have pitched in and made this happen."

At a hearing on the bill, Ornell said the decals would be a reminder of Parks' lifelong fight for equality and "would send a powerful message to people of all ages and backgrounds that Mrs. Parks' legacy matters to us now and every day."

Taking what she learned in a legislative advocacy course and putting it into practice, Ornell organized a coalition of elected officials and civil rights groups behind the bill. They included U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Boston; members of the Boston and Cambridge city councils, the Massachusetts Black and Latino Legislative Caucus, Braintree Mayor and Massachusetts Department of Transportation board member Joseph Sullivan, Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch, local branches of the NAACP, the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development, California Rosa Parks Day Chair Michael Harris and the Southern Poverty Law Center. She also gained the backing of Fred D. Gray, a veteran of the civil rights movement who was Parks' lawyer.

"I'm very happy about it," Gray said in a telephone interview from Montgomery about the signing of the legislation. "Rosa Parks caused a lot of things to change in this country and she was the spark that caused it to change."

Gray said he was happy to assist Ornell in her efforts.

Timilty said the passage of the bill was "a great illustration of grass roots lobbying."

He said Ornell "put her perseverance and tenacity to work on a great cause honoring an American hero, one of the pioneers of the civil rights movement. It was a privilege to work with her."

The decals will provide an opportunity for riders to reflect on Parks contributions, Timilty said.

Sullivan said the MBTA is "the perfect vehicle for this recognition."

A former intern in The Patriot Ledger newsroom, Ornell said she would like to work on getting more transit systems around the country to adopt similar tributes to Parks.

"I hope this can spread," she said.

Ornell said Timilty filed the bill in the fall of 2017.

"There were lots of ups and downs" along the way, she said. "It's an exhausting process."